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Allstate March Catastrophe Loss Estimate Totals $198 Million

Catastrophically speaking, property and casualty insurer Allstate (NYSE: ALL) had an easier time of it in the first quarter of 2013 than it did in the year-ago period. It recorded only nine catastrophic events at an estimated cost of $391 million in the first three months of this year, the company announced today, as opposed to 15 events at an estimated cost of $420 million in the Q1 numbers it reported last March.

The estimated realized costs for Q1 2013 are expected to be only $359 million because the total was partially offset by favorable reserve re-estimates of prior-year catastrophe losses. One severe weather event accounted for over half of the estimated loss for the quarter. In March it suffered estimated catastrophe pre-tax losses of $198 million (or $129 million after-tax). While it didn't identify the event in the press release, in early March a massive snowstorm socked the East Coast.

Allstate is the nation's largest publicly held personal lines insurer, serving approximately 16 million households through its Allstate, Encompass, Esurance, and Answer Financial brand names, as well as its Allstate Financial business segment.

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Rich has been a Fool since 1998 and writing for the site since 2004. After 20 years of patrolling the mean streets of suburbia, he hung up his badge and gun to take up a pen full time.

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